Industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices are central to the operation of modern automation systems. These controllers interact with field devices on the plant floor to control automated processes relating to such objectives as product manufacture, material handling, batch processing, supervisory control, and other such applications. Industrial controllers store and execute user-defined control programs to effect decision-making in connection with the controlled process. Such programs can include, but are not limited to, ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, structured text, or other such programming structures. In general, industrial controllers read input data from sensors and metering devices that provide discreet and telemetric data regarding one or more states of the controlled system, and generate control outputs based on these inputs in accordance with the user-defined program.
In addition to industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices, some industrial automation systems may also include low-level control systems, such as vision systems, barcode marking systems, variable frequency drives, industrial robots, and the like which perform local control of portions of the industrial process, or which have their own localized control systems.
Owners of industrial assets sometimes perform risk assessment analysis on their manufacturing assets, business operations, and supply chain dynamics to identify aspects of their operation that pose a risk of machine downtime, inventory shortage, lost revenue, or other risk factors. These formal evaluations seek to quantify potential risk factors (e.g., failure of an automation device, shortage of inventory levels relative to product demand, etc.), probabilities that the risk factors will be realized, potential effects on other areas of the industrial enterprise, financial impacts, or other such factors.
Performing risk evaluations on large industrial enterprises, which are often distributed across multiple geographical locations, can be laborious process given the large number of interdependencies between industrial assets and processes, supply chain complexities, fluctuating business concerns, etc. Moreover, given the inherent complexities of industrial systems, conventional risk assessment techniques may not consider interdependencies that are hidden or non-obvious to risk evaluators performing the assessment. Opportunities to mitigate such hidden risk factors are therefore missed.
The above-described deficiencies of today's industrial control and business systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.